It's been a hard few days because Harriet was ill the night before we left for Scotland. She hasn't much improved and our journey up was a nightmare. Our train was cancelled so we had to wait an hour for the next one but we would have no reservations on this. Kings Cross has no sit down cafe and even if it scrubs up well in the future it is just hideous at the moment. It must feel like the unloved, forgotten urchin next to the splendour of St Pancras.
Anyway, we rushed like madmen when the platform was announced and got some seats. Off to York, where we sat for an hour due to signal failure. the train drew into Edinburgh as the light was fading and we queued in the freezing weather for a taxi. These were in short supply it seemed.
Next we waited and waited and waited to get our hire car. It was the perfect storm of simpleton customer before us and simpleton Hertz employee. After an age we were ready to head out into the Edinburgh rush hour.
We had left St Pauls at 7am and by 6pm we had made it to Grangemouth. Ok the flight may be delayed but honestly New York to Edinburgh can't be much worse than London to Edinburgh.
It was essential that we make it so she could see her Gran and Grandad. She is so lucky to have such a wide reaching and loving extended family but for me of course it has always been extra-special to go to Scotland.
She now has quite the collection of toys there including a well stocked kitchen. Whenever she comes to Scotland she will be able to play with them and will associate them with Gran and Grandad.
Because she was ill we couldn't do much or see as many people as we might usually. We did see two great aunts (Betty and Isabel) and of course when we are in New York we will be able to go to Canada to see my father's eldest sister (the 'big yin', Jean).
It was sad to say goodbye but we tried to keep in mind that this is really not goodbye but see you later. We will be extra disciplined in using Skype for all the grandparents, aunts and uncles and dear friends. Facebook and other social media will keep everyone up to date and keep us up to date with everyone back home. Also I expect we'll have a fair few visitors stateside as much as we will be coming back here.
The US will offer us so much. Gay parenting is much more established and although we sadly can't become regulars with our friends in Castro Dads San Francisco yet there will be something similar in New York. She's just at the age to start socialising more and having friends with similar backgrounds will be a boon. We also have a much shorter distance to the clinics and the surrogate for the next one.
Who knows what the future will bring. When we took our first steps towards having Harriet in 2006 we couldn't possibly know. I have been keeping notes both in public and private to record all the ups and downs along the way. To each particular story, whether happy or sad there is a constant background note that says: 'this is right and you wouldn't change it for the world'.
Fingers crossed for Monday. There's still a lot to do but we wouldn't have it any other way.
